The Vancouver Heritage Foundation just launched a photo contest where you can submit your pictures of heritage buildings around the city for your chance to win a grand prize staycation at a bed & breakfast. Peppered throughout the city, between glass towers modern storefronts, you’ll find structures that have stood the test of time in […]

Richmond’s Sea Island is home to more than our award-winning airport, it also has a lone residential area. The quaint community of Burkeville that hugs Russ Baker Way and was established in 1943 as a part of the Dominion Government’s Wartime Housing Plan. The federal government established the neighborhood and built 328 cottages for employees […]

June 13th has traditionally been called “Vancouver Day” as a number of significant city events happened on this day in history. Here are a few items of note thanks to Chuck Davis’ Vancouver History: June 13, 1792: Captain George Vancouver explored Burrard Inlet June 13, 1859: A seam of coal was discovered at Coal Harbour […]

1927 – Leonard Frank Photos. Archives item# CVA 1477-51 66 years ago yesterday Vancouver’s most-elected Mayor, Louis Denison (“L.D.”) Taylor, passed away. Between 1910 and 1934, Taylor served as Mayor eight times, spending 11 years in the city’s top office. Taylor was born in Michigan and lived in Chicago before coming to Vancouver in 1896 […]

Heritage Vancouver recently released its list of the Top 10 Endangered Heritage Sites for 2012 and the Main Post Office on Georgia made the top of the list. It’s the focus of this week’s Vancouver Icons series. Photo credit: jmv on Flickr Before this branch opened, Vancouver’s mail came through the post office at what […]

The Vancouver Heritage Foundation presents their 10th annual Heritage House Tour on Sunday, June 3rd. This one-day self-guided tour leads participants through 10 different houses, a church that has been converted to strata units, Cedar Cottage homes, Shaughnessy mansions, and more. Photo credit: Martin Knowles for Vancouver Heritage Foundation on Flickr Over 18,000 people have […]

If you’ve ever driven to or from Vancouver International Airport (“YVR”) then you have traveled along Grant McConachie Way. This road on Sea Island was named after bush pilot Grant McConachie, a man who Chuck Davis referred to as “a genuine Canadian hero”. From the BC Aviation Hall of Fame, excerpted from Peter Piggott’s book […]

Playland is opening for 2012 this weekend so a look through the City of Vancouver Archives to find old amusement park photos seemed in order. 1929 – Entrance gate to the Vancouver Exhibition and Happyland on Renfrew. VPL#: 7925. Photographer: Leonard Frank. 1939 – Fair rides. Archives item# CVA 99 – 3131. Photographer: Stuart Thomson. […]

99 years ago, on April 16, 1913, Athletic Park was dedicated on Hemlock and West 5th. 1915 – Opening Day vs Victoria by the City of Vancouver Archives on Flickr. Archives item# PAN N14B. Photographer: WJ Moore. Chuck Davis writes: “The park was built by Bob Brown, who would come to be known as Mr. […]

I love stepping under the canopy of Stanley Park‘s forest trails, detouring from the concrete paths of the Sea Wall and surrounding thoroughfares. A few years ago I profiled the origins of several Stanley Park Trail Names including Merilees, Rawlings, Tatlow, Thompson, and Tisdall. Tourism Vancouver recently launched their ultimate guide to Stanley Park (useful […]